Fatboy40

Well, mines dead now, set to semi and one trigger pull = burst of auto and huge dump of gas (and a shitty rental AEG for the rest of the day). Something's broken / snapped, but at least I'm not playing again until mid-July.

UKARA 😁 Dead AAP-01 😭

Cooldown is why I haven't, and won't, be buying a Black Mamba and end up with all that metal retaining the cold. The drum mag does have an effect though, in that for me it encourages me to spam the trigger a lot more, and I then have to consider how I manage using the pistol as a primary and factor in short periods for it to warm up again before pushing / engaging anyone. At the weekend I'm becoming a member of my local site, which then gives me free on-site HPA refills, so I'm seriously considering tapping the AW drum mag for this as it's just swapping out the input valve (and then putting the gas one back in afterwards and using some maintenance gas for the seals) so no more cooldown worries.

My preferred local site has worked hard to get things back to normal, they've put the effort in, and due to this I've decided that I'll buy my BB's and gas from there rather than online even though they cost a little more as they deserve to recover from all this mess.

It's their parent groups website, it's about all they actively publish if you Google them, and if you can get it to load is has links to their airsoft one. I suppose in a positive way they're a company who uses their production facilities (plastic moulding etc.) to produce various hobby products so they'll have some sort of longevity in the market. I agree 100% buffer tube all the way for compatibility, plus I don't personally like PDW stocks on M4's/AR's. I suppose I need to accept that being at the cheaper end of the hobby it won't last forever, but it then becomes a shell for upgrades liek you said.

I'm not made of money and considering "bang for buck" I so want to buy a Double Eagle M904 (probably E) when I have the cash (I'd rather the polymer M904 over the metal variant to keep the weight down). However, at the back of my mind I've this doubt that once DE (being a cheaper end Chinese business) finish their production run / stock is gone will move onto a new platform and spare parts will be non-existent / donor guns for their parts will not be available. They have a URL / website... doubleeagle.cn that re-directs to http://doubleeagle-group.com/ ... but it never loads successfully. I just have a feeling that if I want a genuinely long term AEG, with all the useful features like a decent mosfet / electronic trigger / quick change spring etc., I should be saving up for something much higher end? (Krytac territory).

I've found the 3D printed stuff a bit disappointing really, not the design of it but the quality when bought from a third party. I don't know if they're compromising on the type, size of or amount of filament used but things feel a little too flimsy and with big gaps between the filaments / layers.

God it's been ages hasn't it, and it looked so good.

Ummm... I should do but sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees 🙄

I had high hopes for the "outer barrel", a nice long rail on the top, but the screws supplied with it were too long and stopped the bolt / carrier from moving when installed. The screws for the stock Action Army rail kit are to short to use, so I bought some 6mm ones but they were too short to properly screw in, so it's just gathering dust now 😢

Do you mean that after the first hundred shots the gas pressure drops or that you hit another problem? If it's the gas pressure I carry either a mini Nuprol 2.0 can or a mini Abbey Predator Ultra with me, I can then top off the drum mag mid-skirmish and keep that peak drum performance 👍

Does "one of these" = the AW VX Series drum mag? If yes you may be interested to hear that mine crapped out at the weekend, which I use with my AAP-01 and I've not been abusing it and only use semi-auto, but was repairable. First the output valve crapped out and dumped too much gas each time icing the gun up, but easy to sort out, but more hassle was the coil spring in the winding mechanism popped off of the centre of the mechanism (the AW group on Facebook shows how to fix this, but I'm now going to buy a spare winding mechanism as you can get these).

Sunday game at Ironsight near Andover with my son, which went really well (other than Nuprol 3.0, using an AW drum mag, icing up my AAP-01 towards the end of the day, will stick with 2.0). My son had a great time which was the best part of it 😀 Very sore knees today, must get knee pads!

Probably not a worry for me, my original hammer is still good being a semi-only kind of guy, so I'll probably only swap it over for the improved OEM one once I've used the gun in a few more games.

(I was tempted to post this in the Facebook AAP-01 group, but being UK based I thought here may be a little more sensible (and people seem like minded)) I use an AAP-01 as a primary, along with the Action Army stock + Armorer Works drum mag + a red dot, but with the rail kit being out of stock everywhere in the UK I'm think of pushing the button on a Black Mamba (I say "thinking" but I'll probably go ahead and buy one at the weekend anyhow and then regret it at my leisure). In my mind I'm thinking of the following as justifications... With just the stock, and the stumpy rail on it / the stock not being that long, I feel that the red dot is maybe too far back and I'd like it further forward. I've no bottom rail, so nowhere to put a grip which I'd quite like. If I did have the rail kit, and added a grip, I'm wondering if I'd be putting too much load on the outer barrel (I've heard of it "drooping" under excessive weight and the Black Mamba will prevent this). The site I go to most is semi only, so no problems with icing up on full auto, but I'm assuming that the Black Mamba will help with absorbing the cold. ... and I'm struggling to think of any negatives to the Black Mamba other than its cost?